Since April, Phyllis Harris has been covering the name of her mother and Blue Maas has been covering her name in the Catt Hall Plaza of Heroines. For months the coverings have been removed hours after being placed.

On Friday, the September 29th movement sent a letter to Iowa State President Martin Jischke, Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Elizabeth Hoffman and Director of Legal Services Paul Tanaka asking the university to investigate the removal of the coverings to determine the person or persons responsible.

In the letter, the September 29th Movement quoted an Iowa State Daily editorial saying the removal of the coverings represents the denial of free expression.

Jischke said he is unsure if Harris’ and Maas’ freedom of expression rights are in fact being violated.

“We haven’t made any decisions on it yet,” he said. “We would like to review [the matter] before making any comment.”

The September 29th Movement said in the letter that if the university does not investigate or does not locate the person who is removing the coverings, then the movement will cover the two bricks in such a manner that would prevent removal, even though they have been advised by the Iowa State Department of Public Safety and Student Legal Services that doing so would constitute grounds for arrest on a charge of criminal mischief, either a simple or serious misdemeanor.

“They may choose to call it civil disobedience,” said Milton McGriff, a spokesperson for the September 29th Movement, “but sometimes civil disobedience is necessary to make a point.”

“However, we hope your timely investigation will prevent matters from escalating to that point,” the September 29th Movement said in the letter requesting the investigation.

According to a press release, the bricks were first purchased by the sons of Blue Maas, a secretary in the Department of Economics, to honor her and by Phyllis Harris, an ISU graduate student, to honor her mother.

The press release said that Maas and Harris “felt dishonored” once they discovered that Carrie Chapman Catt had made racist and xenophobic statements in public addresses.

Mass and Harris glued black cloth to the bricks in protest. By the following day, the cloth had been removed.

The letter sent to ISU administrators said Harris, Maas and various members of the September 29th movement, “with the express consent of Harris and Maas,” had returned to cover the bricks “between 60 and 70 separate times.”

John Anderson, interim director of University Relations, said he wasn’t sure if the university could do anything about it but that the university would look into the matter.

“Any complaint issued by a student group, a faculty group or any group will be investigated,” Anderson said. “We don’t ignore people’s complaints.”